Automatic railroad-gate.



J. KONSEL. AUTOMATIC RAILROAD GATE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 14,1914.

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JOHN KONSEL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-FOURTH TO FRED BLAHNIK, QF

NEW YORK, N. Y.

AUTOMATIC RAILROAD-GATE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 14, 1914. Serial N 0. 831,856.

' new and useful Improvements in Automatic ltailroad-Grates, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to railway gates and has for its general object to provide a means for automatically operating the gates at a grade crossing, by the approach of a train in either direction and thereby do away with the unnecessary expense of employing an attendant to operate the same.

Another object of the invention is the'provision of means for operating a plurality of gates to be operated automatically when necessary, by trains traveling in various directions. And to these ends the invention consists of a plurality of gates and means positioned in the path of trains whereby the means may be actuated by the train passing thereover for operating the gates.

Other objects will appear and be'better understood from that embodiment of my invention of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, in which Figure 1 is a plan View of a portion of a railroad track and grade crossing showing my invention in position thereon. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 22 in Fig. 1. and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the cooperating elements in my invention.

As shown in the drawings 5, 6, 7 and 8 indicate housings which are positioned at each side of the railroad track at the crossing; 99, 10-10, 11-11, and 1212 are gate arms pivotally mounted in the housings; a indicates means for lowering the arms 9 and 10; 6 indicates means for raising the arms 9 and 10, 0 indicates means for lowering the arms 11 and 12 and d indicates means for raising the arms 11 and 12.

The housing 5, 6, 7 and 8 may be of any shape and structure desired, and are arranged at either side of the rail-road bed so that their arms when lowered, will provide substantial barriers to the right-of-way over the crossing e as shown in Fig. 1.

The arms are each provided with an ec' centrically located bearing 13, by means of which the arms are pivoted within the housings on the shaft 14:, thus providing a Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

shorter end 15 and a longer 16. It is obvious that the longer arm will swing outwardly by force of gravity, and to prevent this operation a pivoted pawl 17 is provided within the housing so as to engage with a stud 18 carried by the arm, and thus retain the arm in a normal upwardly disposed position. In order to prevent the longer end of the arm from suddenly swinging outwardly when the pawl 17 is released from engagement therewith, a weight 19 is provided on the shorter end, which substantially counterbalances the arm and permits the same to swing downwardly in a slow and even manner.

The arm-lowering means a is positioned transversely in the road-bed and is located away from the crossing e at a distance great enough to allow the arms to be down a short interval of time before a train has reached the crossing and after it has actuated the means a while traveling in the direction of the arrow on track on. Forming a component part of the means a is the train actuating member 20, which consists of a shaft 21 arranged transversely of the track m, and a pair of bowed rock arms 22-22 which are eccentrically pivoted on the shaft 21 and are positioned adjacent to the inner sides of the rails of the track, so that the flanges of the train wheels will cam the same downwardly when the train is passing thereover.

The rock-arms 22 are adapted to engage with secondary arms 2323 which are securely mounted on a shaft 24, which is positioned transversely in the road-bed. As the arm 23 is swung downwardly by the arm 22, the shaft is rotated and swings the arms 25 which are keyed or otherwise securely mounted at the outer ends of the shaft. These arms 25 upon being actuated operate to lower the gates on both sides of the track upon the approach of a train on track m as above described, but for the sake of clearness of description the complete operation of one gate only will be described such as that shown in Fig. 3.

Upon the actuation ofthe member a the arm 25 pulls the cable or rod 26 in the direction of the arrow and actuates the bellcrank 27 which pulls the connection 2'8 in the direction of the arrow and thus releases the pawl 17, which allows the arm to swing outwardly.

In order to counter-act the weight 19, a

spring 29 is attached to the end of the short arm 15 and has its other end connected to an adjustable pin 30 positioned on the upper end of the housing. Now, as the pawl is 'released, this spring tends to draw the shorter end of the arm upwardly and thus swing the longer and downwardly until the latter comes, to rest by its engagement with the Stop 31 which causes the arm to assumea horizontal position.

By referring to Fig. 3, it will be seen that the connection 26 does not terminate at the bell-crank 27, but continues to the opposite side of the crossing and operates its companion arm simultaneously and in a similar manner, thus bringing the opposing arms to a closed position. As the shorter 'end of the arm rises, it draws upwardly on a, flexible element 32 which actuates a bellcrank 33in the direction of the arrow so as to pull a rod or cable 34 operate the gatelowering member 6 so that the latter assumes the position shown in dotted lines. This member 6 comprises an arm 36 which is secured to the connection 34', and is mounted on a shaft 37; this shaft has secured to it the rock-arm 3838 which are arranged adjacent to the inner side of the rails of the track m as shown in Fig. 1. Now, as the rock-arms are operated so as to assume the position'shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, the arms are in a position so as to be cammed downwardly by the flanges of the trainwheelsw-hen the train passesover them; andby virtue of the action of the weighted arms 39 provided in the member 6, the member isreadily returned to its normal or full line position. As the arm 36 returns to its normal position it actuates the bellcrank 33 in a direction opposite to the arrow, thus causing the shorter end 15 of the arm to drop and raise the longer end 16, which becomes engaged by the pawl 17 and assumes its normalor initial inoperative position. Thus it will be seen that as a train approaches the crossing e, the member a is actuated for lowering the gate-arms and as the train leaves the crossing the member?) is actuated for raising the gate-arms.

It will be seen by referring to Fig. 1, that the member 0 corresponds to member a and operates to close the gate-arms 11 and 12 as a train approaches the crossing in the direction of the arrow on track 7, and as the train leaves the crossing, the member d is actuated for raising the arms, in a manner similar to that previously described.

As shown in Fig. 3, 27 indicates a bellcrank which is actuated by member 0 when a train approaches in the direction of the arrow on track'n, and by means of the connection 28, a pawl (not shown butsimila-r to the pawl 15)' is released for allowing the arm 11 to swing outwardly. In like manner, 33 indicates a bell-crank which is actuated by the member d by means of the connection 34' for raising the arm 11 as the train leaves the crossing. As shown in Fig. 2, the parts composing member cl correspond to those described in the member 7) and for the sake of clearness the same numerals are used to designate the corresponding parts.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction and arrangements of parts without departing from the spirit of my invention and therefore I do not wish to be limited to such features except as may be required by the claims.

What I claim as new is A gate comprising a housing an arm piv oted therein, a weight mounted on one end of the arm, a spring connecting the weighted end of the arm with the housing, a pawl pivoted in the housing and engageable with the other end of the arm, means formoving the pawl out of engagement with the armfand l means for moving the arm into engagement with the pawl.

In testimony whereof I, aflix my signa- V ture in presence of two witnesses. h

J OHN KONSEL.

Witnesses; 3

M, E. LAUGHLIN, Gno. A. BY NE.

09111:! of 611.1 patent may bev obtained for five cents each, by addressing the commissioner ofratents.

Washington, 11.0. 

